6 Best Event Ticketing Platforms in 2026, Ranked

Choosing the right platform to sell event tickets online affects how much revenue you keep, how easily your guests can register, and how much work you do managing the process. The best platform depends on your event type, audience, and priorities — a large music festival has different needs than a private dinner or a community workshop.

At-a-glance: ticketing platforms compared

Fees last checked 31 October 2026 on each platform's own pricing page. They change, so confirm before you list.

This guide compares the leading event ticketing platforms across pricing, features, ease of use, and the types of events each one handles best.

What to Look for in an Event Ticketing Platform

Before comparing platforms, identify which factors matter most for your events. The five things most organizers care about are: fees per ticket, ease of setup, check-in tooling, guest verification, and payout speed. Platforms optimise differently across these dimensions.

Platform fees directly affect your margins. A 3% fee sounds small, but on a 500-person event at $50 per ticket that is $750 you do not keep. Some platforms let you pass fees to attendees, but this increases the visible ticket price and can reduce conversion.

Guest verification matters more for private and residential events than public ones. Most platforms verify email addresses only. If you need to know who is actually coming — not just who registered — look for platforms with identity verification built in.

Event Flo — Best Free Ticketing Platform for Private and Social Events

Event Flo is a completely free event ticketing platform — zero platform fees, zero per-ticket charges, no subscription. Every feature is included: event creation, registration forms, government ID verification, QR ticket generation, browser-based check-in, and attendance tracking.

The standout feature is guest identity verification, on by default. Unless the host turns it off, an attendee cannot confirm their RSVP until they verify a government-issued ID. This is built for organizers who care who is in the room — private parties, residential events, invite-only gatherings, and any event where unknown strangers are a concern.

Event Flo is browser-based — no app download required for staff or guests. Check-in runs on any mobile browser with QR scanning. Multiple staff members can scan simultaneously with real-time sync.

Best for: Private events, social gatherings, residential parties, community events, any organizer who wants zero fees.

Fees: Free.

PaymentForm.io — Best for Direct Ticket Sales and Session-Based Check-In

PaymentForm.io is a form-based event ticketing solution for organizers who want to sell tickets without building a full event website or relying on a ticket marketplace. Its Event Ticket module supports free and paid tickets, discounted pricing, attendee information collection, and digital tickets with QR codes.

One useful feature is session-based ticketing. Organizers can create multiple sessions in one form, assign tickets to specific sessions, and manage attendee check-in separately for each session. This works well for recurring workshops, weekly classes, multi-day conferences, and events with several sessions. Attendees can receive their own tickets by email, while staff can scan QR codes or enter ticket codes manually to manage entry.

Best for: Independent event organizers, workshops, recurring classes, conferences, community events, and businesses that want direct ticket sales with session-wise attendance tracking.

Fees: Free (0% platform fee); your payment gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay and others) charges its standard fees on paid tickets. Pro plan is $9/month.

Eventbrite — Best for Public Event Discovery

Eventbrite is the largest event ticketing marketplace in the world. Its primary advantage is discoverability — events listed on Eventbrite appear in search results and the Eventbrite app, where millions of people actively look for things to do.

For organizers selling tickets to the general public, that marketplace reach is valuable. For private events, it is the wrong tool — Eventbrite lists events publicly by default and does not verify attendee identities beyond email addresses.

In the US, Eventbrite charges 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket plus 2.9% payment processing per order; in the UK it's 6.95% + £0.59, with no separate processing fee. Buyers pay these by default. Payouts go out three days after the event ends, unless you qualify for earlier payouts.

Best for: Public-facing concerts, festivals, conferences, and community events that benefit from marketplace discovery.

Fees: US 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket plus 2.9% processing; UK 6.95% + £0.59.

Luma — Best for Community and Professional Events

Luma is a clean, modern event platform popular in the startup and professional community space. It handles both free and paid events with a simple interface, calendar integration, and guest management tools. Luma has a social discovery layer — events can be shared and discovered through the Luma network.

Luma's free tier covers most small-to-medium events. Paid features include custom domain, email campaigns, and expanded analytics. Like most platforms, Luma does not verify guest identities beyond email addresses.

Best for: Professional meetups, startup events, community gatherings, networking events.

Fees: free events cost nothing. Paid tickets carry a 5% platform fee on the free plan, or 0% on Luma Plus ($59 a month, billed annually), plus Stripe's card fee (typically 2.9% + 30¢).

Partiful — Best for Social and Private Parties

Partiful is an invite-only party management app popular for social events, house parties, and casual gatherings. It focuses on the social experience — animated invites, guest list management, and group messaging. Hosts in the US and UK can now sell tickets too, paid through Stripe; Partiful doesn't publish its ticket fee (it shows during setup). It does not verify guest identity.

Partiful is free for free events and works well where the invite experience matters. Hosts check guests in by scanning QR codes in the app or by name.

Best for: Casual social parties, birthdays, house events where the invite experience is the priority.

Fees: free events cost nothing; the ticket fee isn't published, and service fees are non-refundable.

Ticket Tailor — Best for Keeping More Revenue on Paid Events

Ticket Tailor charges a flat fee per ticket rather than a percentage. In the UK it's £0.60 + VAT per paid ticket pay-as-you-go, or from £0.22 + VAT with prepaid credits, and up to 5,000 free tickets a year cost nothing. Card processing is billed by your payment provider, and ticket money goes straight into your own Stripe account. On higher-priced tickets that is much cheaper than a percentage fee. It does not have a marketplace, so it works best when you are already driving your own traffic.

Ticket Tailor has a clean embeddable widget, a free check-in app that works offline and on several devices at once, and a straightforward setup. It is a good fit for recurring events where the organizer has an existing audience.

Best for: Recurring paid events, organizers with their own audience, workshops and classes with stable demand.

Fees: £0.60 + VAT per paid ticket (from £0.22 with credits), plus payment processing.

How to Choose the Right Platform for Your Event

The right platform comes down to three questions: Do you need marketplace discovery? Do you need guest identity verification? What are you willing to pay in fees?

If your event is public and you need organic traffic, Eventbrite or Luma give you the marketplace. If your event is private and safety matters, Event Flo's ID verification makes it the right choice. If you are keeping fees as low as possible on a paid-ticket event, Ticket Tailor or Event Flo are both strong options.

Most organizers running social, private, or community events with a tight budget will find that Event Flo covers all their needs without any platform cost.

Best Ticketing Platforms for Multi-Day Festivals

For a paid multi-day festival with day tickets, weekend passes and add-ons, use a platform built for festivals: Ticket Fairy, Eventbrite or Tixr in the US, Billetto or Skiddle in the UK, and District in India. Event Flo suits small or free community festivals that need one price, ID-checked sign-ups and QR check-in at the gate.

A festival asks more of a ticketing platform than a one-night event. You need day tickets and full passes on one event page, add-ons like camping or parking, a re-entry rule for each ticket type, several gates scanning the same list, and scanning that keeps working when the signal drops. Each entry below comes from the platform's own pages, checked on 31 October 2026.

• Ticket Fairy is built around festivals. "A Saturday ticket scans in on Saturday only," and each ticket type gets its own re-entry rules, door times and wristband. Camping pitches, parking and meal packages sell as add-ons. In the US the fee is a flat $2 on tickets under $20 and 10% on tickets from $20 to $99.99, with payment processing included. Its scanning app needs an internet connection, so check the signal at every gate.

• Eventbrite puts single-day tickets, full weekend passes and VIP packages on one event, with parking or camping at checkout. Staff check attendees in and out each day in the Organizer app. Fees are 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket plus 2.9% processing in the US, and 6.95% + £0.59 in the UK.

• Tixr runs large US festivals, including multi-weekend destination festivals that sell hotel and hospitality packages alongside tickets. Its Door app scans offline on iOS, syncs across gates and connects to RFID systems. Tixr publishes no rate card: fees depend on event type, volume and service tier.

• Billetto (UK and Europe) sells weekend passes and day tickets on one festival, offers camping, parking and merch add-ons, and lets several people scan at once on separate devices. The buyer pays 3.99% + £0.90 per ticket (excluding VAT), and ticket money is paid out 3–5 working days after the event.

• Skiddle (UK) has no upfront cost for promoters; buyers pay a booking fee whose size Skiddle doesn't publish. Resale is allowed only at face value, and promoters can switch on Cool:Off, which lets buyers ask for a face-value refund. Same-day remittance payments get ticket money to you sooner.

• District (India) has been the official ticketing partner for Comic Con India, NH7 Weekender and DreamHack India (afaqs, August 2025). It publishes no organiser rate card, and its terms say tickets can't be transferred or resold without the organiser's written permission.

• Event Flo fits a small or free community festival, like a college fest or a two-day run club meet, where one price suits everyone. One registration covers the whole event, and the main entrance scans each pass once. For a check-in every day, add agenda sessions named Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3: staff pick the day in the scanner and scan each pass once per session. Guests you import and walk-ins check in at the main entrance only, and session scans don't change the live headcount. There are no day passes, ticket tiers or add-ons. Event Flo never processes payments: guests pay you directly, and the platform fee is 0%.

Which Ticketing Platforms Are Most Trusted?

A trustworthy ticketing platform passes four checks: buyers see the full price upfront, you know who holds the money and when it reaches you, the refund rules are written down, and each ticket belongs to a real person. Ticket Tailor and Event Flo never hold your money; Eventbrite, Humanitix and Billetto collect it and pay you after the event.

The full price is shown upfront

In the US, the FTC's fees rule (in force since 12 May 2025) makes it unfair and deceptive to advertise a live-event ticket price without clearly showing the total price, mandatory fees included. In the UK, the DMCC Act rules that apply from 6 April 2025 prohibit drip pricing: a mandatory booking fee belongs in the headline price, and the CMA can fine up to 10% of turnover or £300,000, whichever is greater. India's CCPA guidelines on dark patterns (2023) list drip pricing, "not revealing prices upfront or charging higher amount at the time of check out", as a dark pattern. A platform you can trust shows buyers the all-in price on the first screen. Partiful, for example, says the price on the event page "is the final price they'll pay (before tax)."

Who holds the money, and when you get paid

Eventbrite collects ticket money and by default pays out three days after the event ends; if you take payouts earlier, it keeps 20% of net sales in reserve. Humanitix pays within 5 business days after the event on its own gateway, and Billetto 3–5 working days after. Ticket Tailor sends each sale straight to your own Stripe account ("We never touch your money"), and KonfHub settles to your bank every Thursday. Event Flo never holds money at all: guests pay you directly by UPI, bank transfer, your own payment link or cash.

Refund rules are written down

Eventbrite requires organisers to refund when an event is cancelled, or postponed and not rescheduled within 90 days, and to answer refund requests within five business days. Skiddle's Cool:Off, when the promoter turns it on, lets buyers ask for a face-value refund. District's terms refund the convenience fee only when the organiser cancels, and Partiful's service fees are non-refundable. On Event Flo the money never passes through the platform, so refunds are between you and your guests: put your refund terms in the event description. The trade-off is that there is no refund or dispute process run by Event Flo.

Each ticket belongs to a real person

District's terms make tickets non-transferable and ask for a government photo ID when tickets are picked up at the venue. Skiddle allows resale only at face value. On Event Flo, government ID verification is on by default: a guest who signs up through the event page is confirmed only after their ID is verified, and hosts can turn it off per event. Guests a host imports or adds at the door aren't ID-checked. Each confirmed guest gets a single-use QR pass, and a second scan shows "Already checked in" with the time of the first.

Cheapest Way to Ticket a 500-Person Event

If guests can pay you directly, Event Flo costs nothing: a 0% platform fee, with a capacity cap, a waitlist and QR check-in included. With card checkout, the lowest published fees on 500 tickets are Luma Plus (US, about $513 on a $59-a-month plan), Ticket Tailor (UK, about £573) and KonfHub (India, about ₹11,063, gateway included).

Fees on 500 tickets, one ticket per order, charged on the ticket price:

US, $25 ticket

UK, £15 ticket

India, ₹500 ticket

Our arithmetic from each platform's published rates, checked 31 October 2026. Eventbrite, Humanitix and Billetto add the fee to the buyer's price by default, so on those platforms a lower fee also means a lower price for your guests. To run the numbers for your own ticket price, use the event fee calculator.

How Check-In Works at the Gate

At the gate you need four things: several phones scanning one shared list, lookup by name when a guest has no QR code, scanning that survives a weak signal, and a rule for re-entry on multi-day events. All the apps below handle the first two; offline scanning and re-entry are where they differ.

On Event Flo, every staffer you invite scans from their own phone browser, with no app to install. When two gates scan the same pass, the first scan wins and the second shows "Already checked in" with the time, and the day if it was another day. If a guest has no QR code, staff type their name. A pass let in while offline shows as "Let in, pending sync". Two phones that are both offline can't see each other's scans until they reconnect, so give each gate its own connection where you can.

Sources

Fees and features above were checked on 31 October 2026 on these pages:

• Eventbrite fees by country

• Eventbrite payout schedule

• Eventbrite multi-day event ticketing

• Eventbrite organiser refund policy requirements

• Eventbrite onsite check-in tools

• Ticket Tailor pricing

• Ticket Tailor: selling with Stripe

• Ticket Tailor check-in app

• Humanitix booking fees

• Humanitix payouts

• Humanitix check-in

• Ticket Fairy pricing

• Ticket Fairy multi-day festival tickets

• Ticket Fairy scanning app

• Tixr Door

• Tixr platform and fees

• Billetto pricing

• Billetto festival ticketing

• Skiddle festival ticketing

• Skiddle Cool:Off

• District event terms

• NODWIN Gaming and District (afaqs)

• Luma pricing

• TicketLeap fees

• KonfHub pricing

• Partiful: selling tickets

• Partiful fees

• FTC Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees (Federal Register)

• CMA: unfair commercial practices (DMCC Act)

• CMA: clear and accurate information about prices

• CCPA dark patterns guidelines, 2023 (Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan)

For most social and community events, the right platform combines low fees, easy setup, and reliable check-in. Event Flo for organizers offers zero-fee ticketing and a full suite of tools at no cost. Compare all platforms if you are still deciding.

Related on Event Flo

• Event platform fee calculator — see exactly how much Eventbrite, BookMyShow, and others charge vs Event Flo 0%

• Event Flo vs Eventbrite — full feature, fee, and safety comparison

• Free event ticketing on Event Flo — how the ticketing system works for organizers

More from the Event Flo blog

• How to Scan Tickets at Events: Setup, Equipment, and Best Practices

• Free Event Management Software: Everything You Need to Run Events at No Cost

• Illustrative Case Study: Growing a Bangalore Founder Dinner Community With Verified RSVPs